Maybe Iron Man really can fly. The blockbuster superhero movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. as an industrialist who fights terrorists and arms dealers in a red-and-yellow metal suit, pulled off a $100 million-plus opening weekend. On top of that, the thriller could be a game-changer both for comic book publisher Marvel Entertainment and the way Hollywood finances films, BusinessWeek.com reports.
Iron Man’s success,its spiffy script aside,owes much to Marvel’s financial alchemy. The publisher controls the licensing rights to such iconic comic book characters as Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Thor. Now, its Marvel Studios unit aims to make a supersize mark in action-hero movies.
With 2007 revenues of only $486 million from character licensing, toy sales, and comic book publishing, Marvel needed financial heft to run with such big Hollywood studios as Sony (SNE) and Warner Bros. So the company in 2005 borrowed $525 million to set up an innovative film fund that bankrolled Iron Man and will fund other film projects through 2011.
Marvel managed to raise far more money, with far less risk, than its size would ordinarily fetch. It pledged the future film revenues for 12 of its characters as collateral for the bank loans. The move was the brainchild of Marvel Studios Chairman David Maisel, a former financial consultant and top lieutenant to the & #252;ber-agent Michael S. Ovitz. Maisel convinced Marvel’s board that film production, however chancy, would pay off big. “We get to control the destiny of our characters,” says Maisel, who also is executive vice-president of the company.
